What if the sand/dust in these areas is so thin and 'sticky' from moisture that it does not move ? A bit like the dunes that don't move either. Just a little moves in the wind even if the wind is quite strong. That may explain why the solar panels get cleared so easily as there is a thin coating only and the sand caught there dries in the accumulated heat of the panels and blows away easily. It also explains why there is no build up of sand where there should be and why the exposed elements are not being eroded in the way they would be on Earth....
Sand on a beach after the tide has gone out is also wet and heavy, it does not blow around easily. Perhaps there is a lot of moisture just under the surface or it freezes after the thaw ?
NASA can cover up anything and everything including pools of water. I am sure that Iceman will argue that point..... I do not think there is rain in the sense of here on Earth, maybe more chance of snow or some kind of ice crystals. I think the surface melts periodically moving the blueberries and maybe even allow some forms of life like lichen, algaes to bloom while the water flows. It then refreezes or sublimates leaving behind the evidence we are finding.
It may explain why Spirit got stuck, because it is not on sand, it is on something that is more liquid than sand and may be similar to quicksand on Earth....
I'm not a geologist so these are my 'uneducated' and very personal opinions, but bear in mind my argument in my Colossal Head post where I argued this with proof and was finally vindicated when NASA admitted there were areas of ice on Mars.
It still would not explain why the dust devils and sand storms do not cause a build-up of dust/sand. If there was water, there would also be dried up water=>dust. Much like the beach dries up after the tide has gone out. The areas exposed to the wind would now have erosion from the wind and if there is rain it too would cause pools. NASA cannot cover up all the pools of water.
Some of your theory might be correct as there is evidence of hard rain and large drops making marks on the ground and there is what looks like places where water has flowed fairly recently washing away the blueberries into the cracks and crevices between the rocks.
To be honest, I have an 'out-there' theory about the weathering. I agree with you as far as the wind-borne sand is concerned although I cannot explain how the solar panels keep on being 'cleaned' if there is not a strong wind. I agree that there is a lot of evidence of surface water in images.....BUT.... most of all, I believe that there is even more evidence of surface ice with a thin layer of soil/dust over it. I believe that Spirit is traversing a vast ice-field covered with a thin layer of soil/dust that is often churned up and is the reflective lighter colour often seen in images. Iceman posted an image of a glacier with a covering of soil/dust and it gives you an idea.
My theory differs a bit here...I believe, and here I am out on that limb...that once there were vast areas of liquid water on the surface of Mars, I believe that some cataclysm occured that caused a loss of the atmosphere and a surge of the waters over the planet followed by an almost immediate freeze of the waters. Maybe a crustal shift as proposed in the HAB Theory at the same time as the atmosphere dissapeared. The result was similar to what happened in Siberia and the movie 'The Day After', instantaneous freezing of the surface of most Mars. I believe that Mars is experiencing the same global warming phase that we are and that is resulting in artifacts trapped and preserved in the ice in the area that Spirit is traversing being slowly exposed. In the same way as the Siberian mammoths have been exposed over time. Maybe the liquid mel****ers are being 'sublimated' so we don't see them or the images are being manipulated to remove the pools. I do believe we on this Forum have exposed areas of mud and ice in images previously. This would also explain why the things we are seeing are still visible as they are 'recently' exposed and the low temperatures, lack of microbes that feed on flesh and lack of atmosphere may actually mean that they do not degrade very quickly. The areas we are examing are vast 'sink holes' containing remnants of buildings, fauna and flora all washed together by the flood waters and jumbled up. I know that there is an area being excavated somewhere in the US where a similar mix of fossils has been found i.e sea, land and air life-forms all jumbled and mixed together in one inexplicable mass.
I also believe that there are areas of liquid water under ice-fields that are visble in many images complete with ice floes and surface water pools as Mars warms up.
There you have it, my crazy theory but you did ask and its what I do believe......
this is done on sol 517 at site AB and we are still at sol 2017 for the Pancam in my online database. We have a lot of loading to do before we get to that low a sol number I am afraid. Maybe if you look at the map of the route that Spirit took before it got stuck, you can identify other sols that may show this thing from a different angle?
Talking about weathering, I have seen no major evidence of wind-blown sand, although there are the tops of crystals sticking out of the soil, they could also have been buried by being dropped from a great height(explosion).
I would have expected to see some buildup of sand/earth/soil on the leeward side of rocks and I do not seem to have have seen anything like that. If there were these great sandstorms and dust devils, as NASA has reported, I would have expected to see more evidence of weathering. However, there is a slight wind dip on the windward side of rocks, but nothing that would suggest high winds blowing sand about....could have been made by water flowing.
Even the blueberries do not appear to be blown together into clumps, but rather appear to have rolled down a hill or brought there by water. Maybe they are sticky and do not move much?
LOL, I love penguins....(especially the cartoon one, Opus and his choice of book in this one, )
The 'vertebra' is the peice to the right which looks like an upside down mushroom. I was looking at it as though it was exposed through weathering of a cylindrical object that was hollow inside (like a neck) Maybe the 'furry' stuff is something organic ?
It's just strange as I know what it looks like but it doesn't fit with anything I know, maybe a CSI would be of help......
Looks more like a penguin running left to right to me!! (only joking)
Yes, it does look like a piece of vertebrae, but the pointy white/shiny piece to the left looks as if it may be the skin or outside a hollow something broken open. The covering in the inside looks to be a bit 'furry' as if it might be the inside of a gourd or marrow or something like that. I am only saying what it looks like to me though.
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